Existing rafts and other inflatable and floating devices are often used in swimming pools and other bodies of water for swimming-assistance, emergency rescue, or leisure purposes. In swimming pools, for example, pool rafts are a commonly used leisure device. These pool rafts are prone to being blown off of the surface of the water and out of the pool entirely, where they may land on the ground and become dirty or damaged. This represents a nuisance to pool raft users, who have to continually clean their pool rafts before reinserting them into the pool in order to avoid, for example, dirt, sand, and grass clippings from being rinsed off directly into the pool or have to replace their rafts after they have become damaged. To prevent them from blowing out of the pool, pool users could repeatedly remove rafts from their pools between uses. This also represents a burden on pool users, as this process is time-consuming and requires sufficient storage space outside of the pool to accommodate the rafts.
Some efforts to produce retrofittable devices that can hold rafts in a swimming pool have included the use of weights connected to the rafts. These weights comprise materials having a higher density than that of water, for example a metal or sand, which materials sink in the pool water and thereby anchor the raft in the pool. The use of an anchor to hold the raft in the pool represents a drawback because these anchors may damage or deflate the raft as the weight of the anchor compresses the raft material. Further, anchors may break or come loose from the raft, thereby potentially damaging the pool liner or leaving debris, such as a pile of sand, on the pool bottom. Moreover, when these prior art devices are stored in the pool when not in use, for example by draping the device over the pool wall, the anchors may come into contact with the pool walls, thereby potentially damaging them.
Therefore, there is a need for a retrofittable apparatus for retaining an item in a body of water that overcomes the drawbacks and limitations of the prior art devices.